271

Development & Discussion / Re: A Game of Chance - feedback

« on: February 11, 2016, 12:34:27 AM »

Our huge issue at the moment is a lack of "reach". Nobody knows about us.

We're working on it, but it's very difficult. Not that giving up is an option.

272

Development & Discussion / Re: A Game of Chance - feedback

« on: February 11, 2016, 12:20:22 AM »

We're not going to sacrifice the type of  game we want to create to reach a larger market, which in reality could be a problem. Our hope is that there will be a large niche of people who really want to play this game as much as we do.

273

Development & Discussion / Re: Engineering Power Wheel

« on: February 11, 2016, 12:10:13 AM »

Yeah many things will come out in the playtesting we do. Together we can make sure that it will be brilliant.

Man you don't know how funny that is. We do have a mathematician (he studied physics and astronomy) who will be balancing the game at a later stage. He has helped with the game design, and will also be helping to design and develop the game's AI. He will be joining the project at a later stage, when he's needed.  I keep saying "he" because he's a very private person.

274

Development & Discussion / Re: Torpedoes

« on: February 11, 2016, 12:02:33 AM »

The flight time of a torpedo is set by the Operating Power Level of the launcher. The higher the power, the longer the Torpedo can fly, which gives it a greater chance of hitting... something.

The turning radius of a torpedo is set by the torpedo's thruster strength, it's all down to the physics.

275

Development & Discussion / Re: A Game of Chance - feedback

« on: February 11, 2016, 12:00:46 AM »

2. Communication between officers is an extensive topic. We have 9 channels of 1on1 communication between officers, exluding the Captain. There may even be potential for a three-way communication, but I would recommend against it, since it can all probably be solved in a few 1on1 communications. And a three-way communication among 6 crew members is already half the crew, so that can already be solved using voice.
Now, the question is does every officer need to have a special communication channel with every other officer. Perhaps not. I do believe that most of it can be solved with voice, and it wouldn't be clutter. This is important since if an officer only needs to talk to 2 or 3 other officers via the special 1on1 communication, there could be special buttons that would serve as a type of "quick chat". One example of a button would be on the Tactical's screen: "Request enemy's shield frequency", which would raise a notification on the Science's screen, with a quick way of reply. Just throwing that out there.

I don't seem to have been clear when I responded before, the example you give of a "quick chat" feature is exactly what we have. It is built into the UI design, to make communication as effective as possible. So it isn't a menu that you bring up, when you click on something in the UI it might have options for "alerts/quickchats" for the other Officers, it's all context sensitive. Does that make sense?

In terms of other communication, I would like to build VoIP into the game, allowing players to chat with the bridge or just specific officers. I can do that if we get enough funding.

Thanks again for this, your questions and suggestions really help in the design process.

276

Development & Discussion / Re: A Game of Chance - feedback

« on: February 10, 2016, 11:55:16 PM »

Perhaps when the engine safeties are on the afterburner functionality is disabled.

277

Development & Discussion / Re: Torpedoes

« on: February 10, 2016, 11:41:34 PM »

Currently the ship does control the torpedoes remotely. If the ship loses sensor lock on the target, or the ship is destroyed, the torpedo will fly off in the direction it was heading.

I have been considering allowing Tactical to change he torpedo's target while it is in-flight, which could lead to some interesting moments. What do you think?

278

Development & Discussion / Re: A Game of Chance - feedback

« on: February 10, 2016, 11:38:53 PM »

Story, narrative and world-building is Pádraig's area, but I'll answer the game design questions.

We should definitely have A Game of Chance in UNION, I'll ask Pádraig to comment.

2. Communication between officers is something we have put a lot of effort into. We have a series of context sensitive alerts which officers can raise. For example Science can suggest a ship to target, and also recommend a system on that ship to target. An alert pops up against that ship for Tactical, and the ship is highlighted on the radar and contacts list with the Science symbol. Tactical can also request that Science scan a ship, to get more information on it or improve the lock. When Science scans a ship that ship is highlighted for the Tactical officer automatically. These are just some examples, we will be adding these kind of interactions everywhere we can.
3. Klaxons are the alarms which sound when the ship's hull is hit. These can be disabled in your options, if you find them annoying. There will be screen effects and sound when the ship is hit, but we haven't gotten into that yet.
4. Yes Science will be able to see the freq of incoming weapons, so that he/she can adjust the ship's shield freq if necessary.
5. This has been changed somewhat. We have a kind of "afterburner" system instead which gives you increased speed and manoeuvrability for a limited time.

279

Development & Discussion / Re: Torpedoes

« on: February 10, 2016, 11:18:27 PM »

Ships in UNION are entirely physics based, and are very rarely travelling at a constant speed in one direction, especially in a combat situation. When a ship turns it keeps a lot of it's momentum in the direction it was travelling in, which complicates targeting even more. I could make really accurate torpedoes, but that removes need for the Tactical officer to use his/her skills in firing them. Instead I have gone with a kind of dumb tracking system, which is quite effective but not infallible.

I'm not sure what "navigated by the ship or the Tactical Officer" means? Do you mean that the player takes direct control in a first person view?

Thanks!

280

Development & Discussion / Re: Engineering Power Wheel

« on: February 10, 2016, 11:04:34 PM »

Has it been considered varying the diameters of the inner and outer circles as well as the locations of the nodes on the generator as a game mechanic, or even advanced upgrades that allow you to move or adjust those inner nodes. Maybe something that can be done in port. more advanced generators might not just have more power nodes but a smaller inner ring that allows more connections because geometry.

Maybe one faction uses larger inner diameter designs with more nodes and the other has smaller inner circles with less nodes when comparing two "equal" power sources.

Well that's just some throw it out there ideas.

I kept both inner and outer circles to a fixed size to keep consistency, it makes it easier to compare ships like for like. We can vary the amount of available power to systems by changing the amount of reactor nodes, and what their max output is.

Still, you have got me thinking about it, and I'm open to the idea. I will certainly add it to the game as an option, and allow modders to create/modify ships with smaller inner circles. I believe in giving people the flexibility to play the way they want to (as much as I can anyway).

Equipment can be swapped out in port, but I have no plans at this time to allow people to modify the wheel (equipment or node positions). This is a personal choice I admit, but to me those things are fixed into the hull of the ship.

There will however be variants for each ship, with varied equipment slots (different loadouts and positions) and reactors (number of reactors, max power outputs and positions). Perhaps the crew can go back to a station and change the ship variant. I'll have to think about it more.

281

Development & Discussion / Re: Engineering Power Wheel

« on: February 10, 2016, 10:49:10 PM »

I really love these discussions, thanks for taking part guys.

Thanks for the mention for the idea, I appreciate it.

A good video, but I do believe you should try to explain the logic behind splitting power source for an equipment node from the reactor nodes a little better. It's clear to understand how it works, but I'm not exactly sure why. Why doesn't it work the other way around? If an equipment node is overloaded, why will the impact of the chain reaction be lessened if there are more nodes? Is it simply because of the number of power received from each node? If that's the case, then there is still a chance to have one or even both reactor nodes overload and fail. That's not good. Or is there a minimal number of power on that a reactor node needs to feed the equipment node in order to be overloaded?

In the current design overloads can occur on individual connections. So when a critical hit occur's on a piece of equipment the simulation loops through all of the connections that are feeding power and it does a random roll to see if an overload occurs on that connection, based on the power it is feeding. The chance of an overload occurring on a connection increases exponentially with increased power, so it is a lot worse to have 8 power going over a connection than 6. On top of that the severity of the overload is based on the power on the connection. An overload on a 4 power line might disable the reactor node for 20 seconds, but an overload on an 8 power connection could do considerable damage.

So yes splitting power over multiple connections does increase the of reactors/equipment which could be affected by overloads, but you are reducing the overall chance of a serious event.

Now that I have described my current plans, what do you think? The design of UNION is quiet fluid though, I work in a process of experimentation and refinement, and I am always keen to hear suggestions and ideas.

282

Development & Discussion / Re: Engineering Power Wheel

« on: February 10, 2016, 04:12:37 PM »

Hey man,

The Operating Power Level of a piece of equipment will have an effect on the energy signature, but it isn't as significant as the heat produced from operation (using the equipment).

Technically the Engineer on a scout ship could just give the engines a lot of power and leave it at that. However scout ships have a much more limited output, and things like sensors will also require that power (to get the maximum performance). So on a scout ship the Engineer would be swapping power between different systems (like engines, cruise engines, and sensors) as required.

283

Development & Discussion / Engineering Power Wheel

« on: February 09, 2016, 09:34:59 PM »

The focus at this very moment is very much on Engineering and specifically the "Power Wheel". The Power Wheel is the UI which the Chief Engineer uses to manage power levels across the ship's equipment.



Our latest video log has a demonstration of it in action (skip right to demonstration by clicking here).

The power wheel is the beating heart of the ship, it literally affects everything. Getting it right is key to making UNION a truely great game.

Some items I'm working on this week:

• Changing the power being added/removed while dragging a connection, using the mousewheel or by pressing a number key on the keyboard (thanks to Blaze over on the Terran Stellar Navy forum for the suggestion).
• Highlight valid nodes to connect to when dragging a connection.
• Animations when equipment is used (the icon pulses blue) and when damage is taken (the background pulses red).

There is already a system for saving and restoring connection configurations. Once I'm happy with the Power Wheel, which should be at the end of this week, I will begin implementing the UI for that.

I'd love to hear your suggestions and questions.

284

Development & Discussion / Video DevLog #1 and the launch of our forums

« on: February 09, 2016, 08:50:04 PM »

View original post.

Hey all,

Outside of going through Steam Greenlight we've been running pretty quiet up to this point. It's time to start building a real community, and to get them (you) involved in shaping the future of UNION.

To that end Padraig and I have recorded the first in a bi-weekly series of video DevLogs. These DevLogs will hopefully give you a deeper insight into what UNION is and where it is going. This week we discuss some of UNION's history and demonstrate the Engineering Power Wheel.

To coincide with this first video DevLog we have just launched our forums. We are keen to build a community which will be involved in shaping UNION, with feedback, suggestions and discussions.

We'd love to hear from you.